LGA775 Low Profile Heatsink Roundup

Our Q6600 stock cooler sample is about a year old, but has seen very little
service over that time. The Q6600 is a 65 nm chip, and the matching cooler
is a bit larger than the previous one, 62 mm tall and weighing almost a pound (440 grams).

The Q6600 stock cooler features a powerful 5.04W fan manufactured by Nidec.
It is 82 mm in diameter.

The Q6600 heatsink is radial in appearance with a large copper core and
fins with noticeable curvature. Its pushpins are held on by a mounting
plate.

This was the loudest of the three Intel stock heatsinks investigated here, and the
quality of the fan noise was the worst. At 12V it is extremely
loud and turbulent, over 5 dBA higher than the Q9550 cooler. At 9V it is buzzy
and a slight rattle develops. At 8V the rattle causes it to hum and the noise
level approaches 20 dBA which is objectively low, but subjectively, it still
needs to be brought down a notch to be acceptable. At 7V there are two types
of noise, both coming from the motor  an audible hum, and a low-pitched buzzing
sound. Inside a case one meter way it is unlikely to bother most users, but
sitting next to you on a desk in a quiet room, the noise it generates is distinctive.

It should also be noted that we were unable to decrease the fan speed further
than about 1100 RPM  at 6.8V, the fan speed actually begins to increase.
The fan seems to have some type of fail-safe circuitry that prevents it from
running too slowly.

Intel Aluminum Stock Cooler

Our last Intel stock cooler is one of the taller, all-aluminum
types that typically shipped with 65 nm dual core processors. It looks almost
identical to the Q6600 cooler except the fan blades are affixed at a slightly
higher angle and it lacks a copper core. Our aluminum sample measures
1 mm taller (63 mm) and 110 grams lighter (330 grams).

The aluminum stock cooler's acoustics are closer to that of
the Q9550 rather than the Q6600 heatsink. At 12V it produces a breezy hum.
When the speed is decreased a slight rattle presents  this is probably
masked at higher fan speeds by turbulent noise. At 7V there is almost no turbulence,
but the motor's rattle turns into a more noticeable tick while the fan drones.
At 6V it is almost inaudible. Properly enclosed, we judge it to be quiet at
approximately 8V and below.